The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-08-26
WOMAN'S DEPARTMENT.
A GOOD SAMARITAN.

| me Story OF jennie Collins and Her Phil.
anthroplc Desd4
Sixteen years ago, writes Miss Liv-
ermore. in the Womcn's Journal. Jen-
ME Collins was tailoress in Boston
working for her daily bread. Born
unto poverty. she had gagged its
depths for many years. during which
she had fought the battle Of life single
handed and alone. She had measured
by personal experience the deprivations
and misery Of the large class of shop
girls who lived in cheap boarding
houses and lodging-rooms, without re-
sources and without friends, in time of
sickness and trouble. But at last.
when more than halfway through life.
she won little vantage ground for
herself, and Immediately FASTENED to
realize her long-cherished dream of
helping her less fortunate fcllow-wOrE-
ers.
If had called my place Head
quarters for Working Women or any
other similar name," said Jennie.
when criticised for giving her humane
establishment SO homogeneous a cog
nomen, lit would have attracted no
attention whatever. But when / put
up the sign 'Boffin's Bower every
body ran up to the room to see what
the place was. l made lots of acqusins-
ances and friends that way. and got Il
great deal of help. And then l was a
reader of Dickens. and took great
fancy to 'Bofiin's Bower and the peo-
pie connected with it l have never
regretted the name"
Daring the early years of her public
work. l saw great deal of Jennie
Collins, and knew that she and her
"Boffin's Bower" excrted u marvel
Gus influence for good over many who
were ready to perish. In a letter
written me last March she says:
MY experience in these rooms is
simply incredible to myself. 1t can
never be told. 1t would not be be-
lieved. Volumes would not suffice
for the narration of peculiar individual
cases that have come to me with har-
rowing, and sometimes puzzling and
trying details, and which have been
able to relieve"
Her stronghold was the confidence
reposcd in her by the public. which al
ways responded generously to her ap-
peals. That poor working-woman.
without position or training. should
be able to accomplish so large and
benefcent work among the most I'M
fortunate and hopeless classes. was
simply a marvel. She held a '.fair"
every fall to obtain means for free
dinners during the winter for unem-
ployed women. who paid for it in
work. To many that dinner was their
only daily meal for weeks. One
winter, that of II and rs, she fur
nished over 1000 free dinners.
She was stanch believer in wom-
an suffrage, and was confident it
would prove harbinger of a higher
civilization. Until within year or
two. when her footsteps tended slowly
to death, l rarely missed her from the
audience at suffrage meeting. l
marvel how she maintained her I'M
shaken faith in humanity while daily
confronted with its most discOuraging
vices and weaknesses. l wonder at
the exhaustlessness OF her patience. at
the endurance of her courage, and the
constancy of her affection to even the
most wretched of her sex.
A society has been formed to con-
tinue her work. For she was in her.
self a whole organization. comprising
in herself secretary and treasurer.
finance and executive committee. No
one person could fill her place. and al
though lacking prestige and position.
she accomplished an unknown amount
of work that for lack of a nobler de-
scriptive term we call Christ-like.